School Decides That Being Named After a KKK Grand Wizard Is Not Good

A statue of KKK Grand Wizard Nathan Forrest in Memphis, Tennn. The odds are pretty good that Forrest was a big, ol' racist.
(AP)

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A school board in Jacksonville, Fla. has voted unanimously to change the name of Nathan B. Forrest High School after the community decided that having a school named after a former KK Grand Wizard and Confederate general was not a great look. The Duval County School Board received a petition with over 160,000 signatures protesting the school's current name.

According to the petition's orchestrator, Omotayo Richmond:

[The school is] named in honor of a Confederate general who infamously slaughtered Black Union soldiers who'd already surrendered and who was a founding member of the original Ku Klux Klan. The school got its name in 1959, when white civic leaders wanted to protest a court decision that called for integrating public schools.

The Florida Times-Unionreports that the roughly 1,300-person school is 61.6 percent African-American. 64 percent of 1,035 students surveyed wanted to change the name, 36 percent opposed the measure. Five years ago, the school board addressed the controversial name, but it was retained following a 5-2 vote. The most recent vote was unanimous.

Because a name change also necessitates replacing signage, uniforms, and even the gym floor, the district is estimated to spend $400,000 on the change. However, that number is not coming directly out of the school's budget.

The school's superintendent, Nikolai Vitti, said that the next step, choosing a name, would begin shortly after New Year's and the name change will take effect on July 1. A student at the high school back in 1959, when the name was first decided upon, told The Washington Post that the student body overwhelmingly supported the name Valhalla High School.